“Matt Sesnick. Pleased to meet you, sir.”
Matt’s voice coated my backbone like warm honey, but it didn’t ease my nerves.
“And I’m Tony, Catherine’s husband.”
Was it my imagination or had Tony’s voice gotten a few octaves deeper with a pinch of over-protective-brother on top? I dropped my face into my hands. When had my life gotten so complicated?
“Nice to meet you, Tony,” Matt said.
It was my turn. I did a slow pivot in my chair.
Matt’s smile softened when our eyes locked. He wore dark jeans and a charcoal gray shirt and I could smell the same cologne on him as he’d worn the other night. Already my head was fuzzy by the scent of it hanging on the air around him.
“See, Gen really does have a boyfriend,” Lexie grinned.
Matt broke into laughter, which caught like an epidemic. Soon, the room was full of different versions of laughter—relief, guilt, confusion, suspicion. I had to bite down on the laughter erupting from my own lips because I sounded like a deranged crack head hallucinating about carnival rides and clowns.
Mom patted the back of Lexie’s chair. “Lexie, move over so Matt can sit next to Gen.”
Lexie didn’t budge; she was sizing Matt up with the protective expression only a worried sister could wear.
“Lexie, move over,” Mom said again, looking as if she were quickly losing patience.
I nudged Lexie. “It’s okay, move over.”
Lexie hesitated a few seconds too long and Catherine’s brows drew together. So, I stood and flashed another too-big smile.
“Matt, I missed you,” I said, laying it on thick as I stepped toward him. And since it was the truth, not something I’d made up, I didn’t worry about it sounding like a lie to everyone else’s ears. I really had been thinking about him nonstop the past two days.
“Me too,” Matt said and my tummy fluttered.
I still felt Catherine’s stare on the back of my head, so I leaned up on my toes to kiss his cheek. The feel of his smoothly-shaved skin beneath my lips felt great, but I missed the scruff of his beard. The memory of his whiskers brushing against my skin made me suck in a breath.
“Thanks for coming…to my parents’ house. Tonight.” I didn’t know why he was here and if we were alone, I’d be asking him a million questions. This felt like an episode of the Twilight Zone. But there wasn’t time for freaking out. Everyone was staring. I waved my hand at the seat Lexie had just vacated. “Please, sit.”
Matt held my chair out for me, which wasn’t lost on anyone. Dad gave a short nod of approval, Mom looked like she might swoon off her chair, and Mitzy growled at Matt’s feet as he sat down.
“We’re so happy to have you in our home, Matt.” Mom was positively giddy. If the whole situation weren’t so screwed up, I would’ve been smiling along with her.
“Thank you for inviting me,” Matt replied, while I stared at the tablecloth. My ears were ringing. This was bad. Really bad.
“Imogen,” Mom said, and I snapped to attention.
“Yes, Mom?” The sick feeling was back, roiling in the pit of my stomach like curdled milk.
“Get him some lasagna.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” I gripped the spatula in my hand so tight my knuckles turned white.
“Gen hasn’t told me anything about you, Matt. What do you do for a living?” Dad gazed back and forth between me and the stranger he’d just learned was supposed to be my boyfriend.
I had always been an open book and this secret boyfriend thing wasn’t me. If I’d been dating someone, I would have told Dad about him well before said boyfriend showed up to Mom’s lasagna dinner. She reserved that for special guests, and special guests were never a surprise. Never in my twenty-three years had I kept something like this from my parents, and he wanted to know why I had this time. I could see the confusion and concern in Dad’s eyes and I hated that I’d caused it.
You are the worst kind of louse, Imogen Mae Gorecki.
“Matt’s a financial advisor, Jim,” Mom said, folding her hands together against her chest. “And a very good one. We looked him up online. You have a very impressive resume, Matt.”
Dad blinked embarrassment over Mom’s intrusion, his face screwed up into an apologetic grimace. “Sorry,” Dad said to Matt, “she gets excited when it comes to the girls.”
I placed Matt’s plate close to the casserole dish so I wouldn’t slop the lasagna all over. Keeping my hands busy helped.
Matt smiled. “No need for an apology. It’s why we put the information out there.”
“Maybe he can help Gen manage her money,” Lexie teased and I shot her an exasperated glare. She was enjoying this.
“There’s nothing wrong with the way I manage my money.”
“
Mm-hm
, you’re always broke,” Lexie said. She leaned forward so she could cross her eyes at me. She shrugged at my withering glare. “What? It’s true.”
“Are you from Lincoln, Matt?” Tony asked, detective mode on and I clenched my jaw together.
Where was the wine? There was always a bottle on the table for dinner.
“I grew up here on a farm outside of town. I went to college out of town and just recently moved back to Lincoln. I’ve been here about a year now.” Matt seemed mesmerized by his plate piled high with lasagna and salad. “Mrs. Gorecki, this smells great. I haven’t had homemade lasagna in a really long time.”
“Please, call me Marilyn.” Mom’s pleased smile said he’d just earned a brownie point.
“Marilyn makes the best lasagna in the city,” Dad bragged, adding his own brownie points.
“Oh, stop, dear.” She even batted her eyes.
I set a slice of lasagna on my own plate and put the spatula down. Not only did I feel like a jerk for lying, but I’d also put Matt on the chopping block. I wouldn’t be any help, either, because I didn’t know much about him. Not enough to get him through an interrogation by my family.
Making up a boyfriend had seemed like such a great idea at the time—a last resort in the face of being forced into something I didn’t want. Now, I knew better.
What a disastrously stupid idea!
Probably, Matt would never talk to me ever again.
“How long have you two been dating?” Dad asked and I reached for my glass of ice water, hoping to cool my flushed skin.
“It’s a,” I cleared my throat, “recent thing.”
Matt’s hand grasped my leg under the table and I sucked in a breath. He gave my leg a reassuring squeeze. The contact had the opposite effect of comfort and sent a shockwave through my entire body, leaving me tongue-tied. I wanted to be as calm as he was, but it wasn’t possible. I was too worried about being disowned once my parents found out I’d lied about something so stupid.
“Your parents must be so proud of you, Matt,” Mom gushed. “You said they live on a farm near here?”
“Just my dad. We lost my mom to cancer about six months ago. One of the reasons I moved back home,” he said and my throat constricted. I grasped his forearm to give him the reassurance he’d just given me. His gaze met mine and I had a feeling his smile was for my sake, not his own. He shouldn’t have been so concerned about my feelings over his loss. I frowned.
“Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry,” Mom worried, clutching the front of her blouse.
“No, no, it’s okay,” Matt assured with a smile. My throat ached. “She was very sick. We’re at peace with her passing.”
“I’m sure your father is happy to have you near.” Mom’s eyes glittered with unshed tears. She looked around the table with a proud smile. “What you’ll learn from the Goreckis is that we’re all very close.”
“We’re happy to have you at our table,” Dad said, conceding for the night because a family man was, in his eyes, as close to perfect as one could get.
I reached for Matt’s hand under the table. I couldn’t imagine losing my mom. The thought of it made my heart ache. I wanted to hug him but I stayed right where I was, clutching his hand with the hope I wouldn’t cry.
“Oh!” Mom said and stood again. “I forgot the wine. Please excuse me.”
“Thank God,” I muttered then blushed because I’d spoken out loud. Everyone’s eyes were on me and Catherine’s gaze was nothing short of analytic, her lips pursed. When Mom disappeared into the kitchen my brain came back from hibernation mode. Looking at Catherine, things clicked into place.
I turned to Matt. “So, did Mom call you at work?”
“Yes, she did.” Matt took a bite of lasagna.
“I wonder how she got your number…” I mused. But I had a pretty good idea already because Catherine was suddenly more interested in the bottle of salad dressing than with staring me down, her favorite pastime. She definitely had something to do with it.
Mom reappeared through the dining room doorway.
“We found him online.” Mom set the bottle of chilled red down on the table. She handed the other bottle to Dad along with a cork remover. She smiled at me. “I know you said not to invite him, but I just think that’s silly. We were all dying to meet him.”
“We?” I asked, knowing full well who ‘we’ meant. I leaned forward to look across Matt to Lexie, who shook her head.
“Don’t look at me. I had nothing to do with this.” She glared across the table at Catherine, who rolled her eyes. “Apparently they didn’t want me involved.”
“Please, you have the biggest mouth of any of us,” Catherine said in a really bad attempt at defense.
“Cat and I just thought, why not call?” Mom sent Matt another adoring gaze. “You two look so great together in that picture, I just couldn’t help myself.”
I pinched my eyes shut, dangerously close to passing out from embarrassment.
“We do look great together,” Matt said.
I snapped my eyes open to look at him. He was doing his lopsided smile, making my stomach flutter. I blushed and tore my gaze away to stare blindly at the lasagna piled on my plate. I dug my fork in. At least the food was good. Maybe I could eat so much I’d go into a food coma and the rest of the night wouldn’t matter.
“Cat brought her laptop in and we found him just like that!” Mom snapped her fingers.
“Of course she did,” I muttered and shoved another forkful of lasagna into my mouth.
“You know, you can find just about anything on that thing.” Mom poured just a touch of dressing onto her salad. “It’s really very disturbing.”
“Damn internet,” Dad huffed and helped himself to another slice of garlic bread. Dad was certain the advancement of technology and use of cyberspace was the reason mom and pop businesses like his hardware and tool rental store were disappearing all over America. That, and he said the internet made people lazy. There was one thing Jim Gorecki didn’t tolerate and that was laziness.
Tony nodded in agreement. “Just easy access for psychos to stalk people. These days you can learn how to do anything on the internet, and none of it’s good. If it were up to me there’d be a license for use, a thorough background investigation and reference check.”
My brother-in-law blamed the internet for all the crime in the world. Probably if he’d chosen to be a history teacher instead of a detective he wouldn’t be nearly as paranoid as he was, but he’d come from a long line of law enforcement and being anything else hadn’t been an option.
“Isn’t that something,” I interrupted before Tony and Dad could join forces on their monthly internet tirade. “And you found him just like that. Fun.”
“Very fun,” Mom agreed, oblivious to the abusive glare I showered on Catherine.
Matt gave me another light squeeze on the thigh. I was easily lost in his eyes—tonight they were more green than the whiskey amber they’d been the night we met. Hazel was my new favorite color.
I had to look away. It was important to stay focused. Having an older sister like Catherine meant I needed to be on my toes at all times. Especially in the midst of a whopping lie.
“And isn’t it wonderful that he’s here?” Catherine asked brightly, pretending great concentration on setting a slice of garlic bread on Tony’s already full plate. Her guilty tone only solidified another of my suspicions as to why Catherine had insisted on finding Matt—she hadn’t thought Matt was real, even with the photographic evidence I’d produced. Had she thought I Photoshopped him in?
Sheesh.
“I’m sure Matt told you about our conversation.” Mom waved her fork at me.
“Um, maybe?” I said. Matt was busy enjoying his lasagna. Or avoiding my gaze. I was pretty sure it was the latter. I made a silent pact to never make up a boyfriend again; fabricating a relationship had turned into a huge pain in the ass. “Uh, yeah,” I said. “We talked about it a little.”
“Oh, good. What did you think about our hair conversation?” she asked me.
I shifted nervously in my seat and picked up the bottle of wine. “I, uh, thought it was a good conversation.”
Mom let out a sigh. “Oh, good. It’ll be nice to see your hair back to blonde. No more hair coloring.”
My eyes widened and I sputtered, “Well, I just meant it was a good conversation. Not that I won’t color my hair anymore.” I smacked Matt in the arm. “I can’t believe you talked about my hair behind my back.”
He laughed and put his arm around my shoulders, drawing me in close to his side in a quick hug. “Sorry, hun. I didn’t bring it up, though. Your mom is concerned about your hair falling out.”